Andrew McCabe Could Be Fired Just Before His Official Retirement

Sessions will get to decide whether to accept the recommendation, a move that would threaten his ability to collect a pension after his 21-year career with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to the Times. It's likely he'll take the recommendation because it would be hard for Sessions, who has promised to go after leakers, to be perceived as looking the other way on leaks. "That process includes recommendations from career employees and no termination decision is final until the conclusion of that process".

McCabe, 49, had always been expected to retire on March 18 though he abruptly left his post earlier this year after his boss, FBI Director Christopher Wray, was told of what the inspector general had found.

The report is part of an ongoing probe into how investigations prior to the 2016 election were handled at the Justice Department and the FBI, including the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.

Trump has repeatedly called for McCabe's firing over the past several months, which leaves whatever decision Sessions makes open to partisan criticism.

As first reported Wednesday by The New York Times, Sessions is now reviewing a recommendation to fire McCabe for alleged lack of candor in his discussions with the Justice Department's inspector general in the course of an investigation into how the Justice Department and the FBI handled the Clinton investigation.

Republicans have questioned McCabe's ties to the Democratic Party, considering his wife ran as a Democrat for a Virginia Senate seat in 2015 and got financial help from a group tied to Clinton family ally Terry McAuliffe. "We have no personnel announcements at this time". If the Justice Department does not move on the recommendation, conservatives might view officials there as unfairly protecting McCabe. McCabe represents but a piece of that work.

McCabe stepped down as Federal Bureau of Investigation deputy director in January but is still on the agency's payroll.

The Wall Street Journal report was written by Devlin Barrett, who is now a reporter with The Washington Post.

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